Some Birds Seem To Need More Than A Gentle Push From The Nest

BUSINESS

December 1, 1989|By Dick Marlowe of The Sentinel Staff

Several interesting letters awaited me on my return from a recent vacation, and I want to share some of them with you because you don't always find this kind of financial knowledge and information in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes or Barron's.

The first is a letter from an Orlando man who will remain anonymous for reasons that will be obvious when you hear what he has to say. His letter was in response to a recent column in which I suggested that some strained parents might want to restore the old plate-breaking ceremony as a way of telling middle-aged children that the time has come for them to go out into the world and seek their fortune - or at least their room and board.

''I started by breaking one plate. I am now up to a service of 12,'' he writes. ''It's costing me a lot of bucks and he still won't take the hint. I thought of taking the knives and forks away, but I figured he would start eating with his fingers and his mother would have to scold him.''

I understand the problem, but don't give in. Go ahead with your secondary plan. If that doesn't work, you might consider breaking his fingers?

Winter Park reader Tom Utegaard, I am sure, will not mind if I use his name. He seems to be a reasonable man who would like to share his discovery of a miraculous road to riches he has discovered simply by opening and reading his junk mail.

''I had thought - and I'll bet you did too - that financial good fortune resulted from ambition, hard work, a reasonably good education and a certain amount of healthy skepticism,'' Utegaard writes.

What he learned is that all he really needs to pay off his debts and live the good life is a ''cash candle.'' Utegaard can get one of the ''legendary'' candles for just $3, the postcard notes, which will be his to light with no restrictions whatsoever the very moment it arrives. ''How it works is unknown,'' the card says. ''The important thing for you is that it does work, as you may see for yourself.''

I am not telling you how to get your own cash candle, in fear that some people who are still sending money to Jim and Tammie Faye Bakker may read it and put a check in the mail. Utegaard's big regret is that he didn't know about the cash candle sooner. It is so-named, I assume, because it won't work if you use a credit card.

''I thought I should share it with somebody,'' Utegaard adds. ''Your name came to mind almost immediately.''

Thanks Tom. And you can have the Ford Thunderbird, the television set, the Bahama cruise and the uncut diamonds I won through the Official Certified National Center for Sweepstakes Prizes.

And reader Earl Ericsson is more than a little bit upset about the fact that our government always seems to have enough money to bail out foreign nations in economic trouble - including our enemies - when it can neither balance the budget nor come up with money for badly needed projects and disaster relief here at home.

''What can we, the people, do to correct these problems and get our government priorities revised so that we are once more a strong, independent nation?'' Ericsson asks.

Well, let me introduce you to another letter writer, Louis J. Goodman, a charter member of the Citizens Against Government Waste. Also an Orlandoan, Goodman writes, ''People power to mandate overdue change in our federal government to eliminate waste and mismanagement can be effective through organizations such as Common Cause and the relatively new foundation, Citizens Against Government Waste.'' That's the best answer I have. Join the war on waste and do whatever you can to let Congress know that its members do not deserve a raise until they balance the budget.